


Changing Tides

by earz_wide_open



Category: Thor (2011)
Genre: Brotherly Angst, Community: norsekink, Gen, this is sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-11
Updated: 2012-09-11
Packaged: 2017-11-14 01:31:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/509880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/earz_wide_open/pseuds/earz_wide_open
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the following prompt on norsekink:</p>
<p>" In a rare moment of honesty (possibly when he's a bit drunk), Loki admits to Thor that he doesn't really enjoy spending time with him anymore. "</p>
            </blockquote>





	Changing Tides

**Author's Note:**

> **I'm thinking this happens somewhat close to _Thor_ , but not immediately before. Thor and Loki are somewhere in that middle ground between teenager-dom and adulthood.**

 

 

"It is the still and silent sea that drowns a man."  
  
-Norse proverb  
  
  
  
The setting sun had run its dripping paintbrush across the dimming Asgardian sky. It left in its wake a trail of chrysanthemum and plum and vermillion. The steady pulse of the ocean filled the edges of the dusk. Two brothers, one in red and the other in green, hung their legs over the edge of a cliff and stared out at the same masterpiece they saw every evening.  
  
"It is beautiful, is it not, brother?" said the one in red. His face glowed pink with the warmth of the ale in his veins.  
  
"It is as it is every night," replied the one in green, wistfully.  
  
They sat in silence and listened to one another breathe with the rhythm of the beating tide.  
  
"But," ventured the one in red, "it  _is_  the greatest sight to behold in all the Nine Realms."  
  
"There could be still greater things than Asgard, Thor. To assume otherwise would be arrogant at best."  
  
Thor laughed, "Ah Loki, someday soon your wandering eyes will be stilled by patriotism. Are you not Æsir, man?"  
  
Loki sighed.  
  
"Sometimes I do not think I am," he said, low and under his breath. His voice was muffled by a wave breaking on the cliff.  
  
"What troubles you, brother?" asked Thor. "The feast was hearty, the women in good spirits, the ale flowing freely..."  
  
"The feast is always hearty. The women are always in good spirits. The ale always flows freely."  
  
"Then for what more could you possibly want?"  
  
Loki scoffed.  
  
"A lighter soul with which to stomach it all."  
  
"A lighter soul, perhaps," said Thor with a wink, "but not a lighter stomach. I best you at imbibing nearly every night!"  
  
"Congratulations," said Loki dully. "You are truly Asgard's best and brightest."  
  
"And there is no one," smiled Thor, "with whom I'd rather  _share_  that title than you."  
  
Thor put his arm around Loki's shoulders. Loki ducked away from the embrace. His cape brushed the grass.  
  
"Loki?"  
  
Loki fixed his eyes on the horizon.  
  
"What is it, Loki?"  
  
Loki's shoulders fell.  
  
"I..." he said. "I grow weary."  
  
"Then please, brother," chuckled Thor, "let us get you to bed and hope this drunken fatigue passes!"  
  
"I am sober, Thor."  
  
"A little more ale, then! That should put some color back in those cheeks-"  
  
"I want to be left alone."  
  
Thor crawled on his hands and knees to look at Loki's downturned face. The younger prince's dark eyebrows were knit together. Tears reflected the sun's dying rays in the corner of his eyes.  
  
"Loki..." said Thor. "We... We return to court every night together. Every night after we sit here, together. And you-"  
  
"Yes, Thor." More tears gathered in Loki's eyes. None fell. "Tonight I wish to sit without you for awhile."  
  
Thor clapped a broad hand on Loki's knee and swallowed.  
  
"You trouble me sometimes, brother," Thor said, and stood and walked away across the grass.  
  
By the time Loki turned to look back toward the palace, Thor had gone. Loki let a tear fall on his cape and quickly brushed it away.  
  
Little by little, it grew dark.


End file.
